Recently, attention has been directed toward preventing ready actuation of lighters by persons normally not able to appreciate the potential danger of the flame. Such danger includes the potential to burn the individual directly or to burn surrounding areas or items. Individuals normally contemplated in these efforts are young children in the age category of five years or younger.
A conventional cigarette lighter includes a body containing a fuel reservoir filled with a liquified and pressurized hydrocarbon fuel, a valve actuator lever, a striker wheel, a flint in frictional contact with the striker wheel, a fuel flow control valve in fluid communication with the fuel reservoir. After the striker wheel is rotated against the flint by digital manipulation to produce sparks, the valve actuator lever is depressed allowing gaseous hydrocarbon fuel to flow out of the reservoir through the flow control valve. The sparks then ignite the released fuel producing a flame. Such lighters are known in the art, and are commercially available.
It is relatively easy for the intended adult users to operate the conventional prior art lighters. It is desirable to increase the difficulty of use to limit the ability of young children under five years of age to operate such lighters. For this reason there are many proposed "child-resistant" lighters offered in the patent literature and on the market. Examples of such patents include U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,125,829; 5,002,482; 5,165,886; 5,090,893; and PCT Application No. WO 93/17282. Each of the disclosed devices has in common the fact that the child-resistant feature somehow acts to block movement of the gas fuel release mechanism to prevent operation of the lighter.
Although many of the currently available designs provide a degree of "child resistancy," there is a continuing search in the art for designs which are easy for the intended adult to operate while retaining their "child resistancy."